About the Blogger

Professionally, I’m a certified public accountant and a registered investment advisor. I’ve been self-employed for the vast majority of my professional career spanning some 30 years. I practice out of Northern NJ just outside of New York City and Northeastern PA about 50 miles north of Philadelphia. I love to write and should have probably gone into journalism. I suppose it’s never too late to pursue other interests and I believe most of us are fully capable of pursuing more than one career in a lifetime– although “career” generally means something one is getting paid for. That’s not something that I’ve set out to do here, so currently my “pay” is just coming from the satisfaction I get from blogging.

I’m not an ideologue who can be placed in the neatly dichotomized categories of “liberal” or “conservative”. Those labels are fictions anyway because most people don’t fit entirely into one camp or the other and I just don’t like labeling myself. My political views are a conglomerate of a lot of stuff including my experiences. They’re also flexible as I’ll reconsider my position on something in the face of information or facts not previously considered.

My reading interests revolve around science, economics, business, politics and history. Each of these has linkages to explaining and analyzing the conditions affecting African-Americans in this country. It is my view that many of the challenges faced by the African-American community have their genesis from issues within the community rather than without. Given that, there are some brutal truths that must be grappled with and some urgent discussions must be had. Ultimately, we must act. Shaping this sort of discussion and fostering action forms the primary basis for this blog, but not the only basis.

I also like engagement in the broader world around me and often there are things that occur that don’t fit neatly into what traditionally are considered African-American concerns, but are part of the broader tapestry the world operates in. Of particular concern to me is the economic sphere and the vast changes that are occuring on that front that have been set in place over the years. These changes promise to bode very challenging times as we navigate a new emerging economic world where things will be vastly different than the past. There’s a great tendency for most people to assume that the recent past is what the future will also look like and normally that’s a reasonable assumption, except in periods like the one we’re in of fast and dramatic change. I’ll spend a fair amount of time talking about these challenges as well.

Finally, an explanation about the name of the blog. A clarion was a medieval trumpet that emitted a loud and clear sound. A clarion call is a powerful request for urgent action on an irresistible mandate. On a number of fronts, it’s clear that such a call is sorely needed.

My voice is really only an echo of what many have said before. In a way, the voices of Frederick Douglass, Malcolm and others call across the years to tell us what we should do. Since many of us are unfamiliar with these voices, we can’t hear them, so in a way, all that I do here is amplify their voices so they can be heard. I’m very glad to do so.

My voice is really only an echo of what many have said before. In a way, the voices of Frederick Douglass, Malcolm and others call across the years to tell us what we should do. Since many of us are unfamiliar with these voices, we can’t hear them, so in a way, all that I do here is amplify their voices so they can be heard. I’m very glad to do so.
+1

“If we remain poor and dependent, the riches of other men will not avail us. If we are ignorant, the intelligence of other men will do but little for us. If we are foolish, the wisdom of other men will not guide us. If we are wasteful of time and money, the economy of other men will only make our destitution the more disgraceful and hurtful. “

Frederick Douglass

“If you form the habit of going by what you hear others say about someone, or going by what others think about someone, instead of searching that thing out for yourself and seeing for yourself, you will be walking west when you think you’re going east, and you will be walking east when you think you’re going west. This generation, especially of our people, has a burden, more so than any other time in history. The most important thing we can learn to do today is think for ourselves.”